Church Investors Group to adopt common voting policy

The largest members of the Church Investors Group (CIG), an organization of mainstream church denominations and related charities, have agreed to a common voting policy for all annual shareholder meetings this year, the organization says in a press release.

The group, which has 56 members from the UK and the Republic of Ireland with a combined £15 bn ($22 bn) in assets, as well as partnerships with groups in the US, Canada and South Africa, says it will focus on ethics, sustainability, board diversity, executive pay and other issues related to SRI while voting at shareholder meetings in 2016.

‘The CIG’s new collective voting initiative will further amplify the church’s voice on key issues such as the structure, independence and diversity of company boards, the independence of auditors and wider engagement concerns,’ the group states.

The CIG says its common voting policy will place ‘particular emphasis’ on executive remuneration this year, especially on determining whether companies’ executive pay policies are encouraging long-term thinking among management or whether pay is excessive. It will also consider voting against all members of a remuneration committee when a company’s remuneration report or policy ‘causes the highest level of concern’.

The policy further commits the group to push for independence of auditors, work toward mitigating climate change and promote the suggestions of the Davies Review into gender diversity on corporate boards in the UK.

ISS, the proxy adviser, will administer the group’s new collective voting policy, according to the release.

The CIG says it has sent a copy of its new policy to all companies in the FTSE 350. ‘As responsible investors, members of the Church Investors Group have long used their voting rights to promote the best standards of corporate governance at investee companies,’ CIG secretary James Corah says in the press release. ‘By joining together we are able to clearly communicate the issues that matter.’